


What we are today

by Buggirl



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Aftercare, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Edging, Institute Ending, Light BDSM, M/M, Praise Kink
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-04
Updated: 2018-01-01
Packaged: 2018-05-31 04:40:43
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6456238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Buggirl/pseuds/Buggirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kink meme fill. I was thinking a lot about m!ssxmaccready and reading a lot of fills - and one caught my eye, but it was over a month old and no one noticed that I filled it. So putting it here instead. Unbeta'd.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The fill:  
> I've seen way too many Mac fills and stories where people equate Mac being married = good at sex. Guys he's 22. Have you met a 22 yo boy? They're sub par at best. They don't last long and they think oral is the kinkiest thing you can do. Like he married his childhood crush soon after they both left little lamplight. Do you really think EITHER of them know much about sex, safe/fun or otherwise?
> 
> Give me mac's hands on sex education where they experiment trying to see how long he can last and how penetrative sex isn't the only thing you can do with your partner. Also some praise kink because he's doing such a good job !! :)
> 
> \+ would prefer no het  
> \+ preston or male/nb ss  
> \+ also if you can be careful with his mouth? all those rotten teeth must make kissing and oral hurt. kiss him in other places pls, show him what else he can do

He’d never actually done this before, but he’d been involved. It was just… normally, him tied to the chair, not the other way round. He’d learnt from the best, Nora had given him everything he’d wanted and he’d loved her for it.

However, she was gone and with her, any semblance of an ordinary suburban life.

Then he met this little shithead. He had a mouth on him all right, never shut up, bad puns and constant stream of cigarettes. He was dirty, with bad teeth and drank far too much for someone handling a gun. Nate, a former elite soldier, hated the casualness of it all.

Then the little shithead had told him a story. Of a wife and a kid and Nate’s gut twisted when it was all revealed. From that moment, everything changed between them.

“I’m not sure about this, Boss.” MacCready gulped and shivered as he sat naked on the chair.

Nate tightened the strap at MacCready’s wrist before checking the ones on his ankles then leaning over and kissing his cheek. “It’s okay, Mac. You’re gonna like this. I promise. Remember the safe word?”

MacCready nodded and snorted a laugh. “Mungo.”

Nate looked over the young Merc. He was wiry and sinewy, but there was no mistaking the muscles underneath his taut flesh. In contrast, Nate had a Marine’s body, large and muscled. They’d been involved for over a month now, a relaxed, mostly passive mutual masturbation and blowjobs, but neither had been able to submit beyond that.

Nate pulled up a chair and sat in front of him. He still wore jeans and a t-shirt but was barefoot. He wiggled his toes; glad to be free of the tight fitting boots he wore every day.

He leaned over and bought out a small steel baton from under the chair.

MacCready’s eyes widened. “What…” he bucked and pulled against his ties in the chair.

“I’m not gonna hurt you, Mac. Shush. I know this takes an element of trust from me, and I know that’s not easy for you to give. Just relax.” Nate ran the baton up and down one of Mac’s legs, then the other one. MacCready shivered under the cold steel.

“Did ah… Did ah, Nora do this for you?”

Nate laughed. “She did, sort of.” He wasn’t sure how to tell him how many ruined orgasms his wife had given him, all for a cause, all because he needed it, he enjoyed it, and it was their dynamic. It wasn’t Nate’s intention to take MacCready there, but he hoped the little merc would return the favour and when he was ready, he’d show him exactly what to do.

MacCready’s breath caught when the steel of the baton hit his upper thigh.

Nate had discovered, through Hancock’s ingenious knowledge, that extract of hub flowers were oily enough to provide a lubricant, as long as you weren’t sensitive to the plant, it made for an excellent substitute. He put the baton down, greased his palm with a small amount of lubricant, and wrapped his hand around MacCready’s cock. He pumped slowly, up and down; his other hand teased his balls.

MacCready groaned under the touch of Nate’s callous digits and Nate smiled as he felt MacCready’s cock pulse in his hand. “Good lad. This nice? You like it?”

MacCready nodded. “Oh fu-- oh yes.”

“Oh don’t swear now, don’t ruin the moment, you were being so good. Don’t want to disappoint Duncan now do we?”

“No– uhh no, no.”

Nate continued his slow movements up and down MacCready’s shaft. He leaned in and kissed the tip of his cock then leaned down to kiss his stomach. “Such a good little sniper, watching out for his boss. Making sure no ghouls or mutants get a taste of my ass.”

He gave a small moan under laboured breaths. “You have a nice ass, uhh–”

It hadn’t taken long for the merc to get worked up, Nate could see MacCready was getting close by the amount of fluid oozing from his cock so he took his hand away and picked up the baton, once again tracing it up and down his legs. “You’re not gonna come yet are you, Mac? Not for the Boss, I’m not ready for that.”

MacCready flinched as the baton pressed hard into his thigh. He shook his head. “No, Boss, no.”

Nate stood and walked behind him. He ran his hands through MacCready’s hair then knelt down behind him slinging his arms around the Mercs shoulders. “You know, when a good little merc does the right thing, his Boss is always gonna be mighty pleased with him.” Nate kissed MacCready’s neck, running his tongue from his collarbone and up to his ear. Once again, MacCready’s breath hitched as Nate smothered his shoulder with kisses.

Nate stood again, walked back around, and sat back down in his chair. He greased his palm again and slid it back over MacCready’s cock. He continued the slow up and down movements with his thumb occasionally brushing over the tip and mixing the lubricant with precum. Nate’s voice was low and even. “So good, always following orders, carrying my junk, doing everything I ask.”

MacCready began to writhe; his hands were free to grip the arms of chair. The wood creaked with every small movement he made. 

“You’re not gonna come yet are you, buddy?” Nate cooed.

“No… ” MacCready moaned and a small whimper escaped his lips. He shook his head.

“Good little mercenary, good little soldier boy. Boss Nate likes that.”

He took his hand off MacCready’s cock then got down on his knees in front of him. He kissed MacCready’s hands, clasping the chair tight. He kissed his thighs and his stomach, then his chest, paying attention to each nipple, before reaching his neckline and nibbling at his chin. He stood back and stared into MacCready’s deep blue eyes, so different from his dark brown ones. He could easily lose himself in those eyes.

“You liking this, sniper boy? Do you like the special attention the boss likes to give his favourite companion?”

MacCready nodded. “More?” His voice was pleading, almost a cry.

Nate kissed him on the nose, sat back on the chair, and took up his ministrations again, this time with a firmer grip, rougher and harder. “Shall I make you come?”

“Yes, yes, yes.” MacCready’s pleas were a quiet whimper.

Nate took his hand away and stood once again. He went to the corner and poured himself a glass of water and returned, appraising the wriggling state of MacCready tied to the chair. “I didn’t quite hear you, Mac.”

This wasn’t Nora level edging, but for now, for MacCready, it would be enough. He could see the sweat on MacCready’s brow, his cock tight against his stomach.

“Yes, make me come, Boss, make me come,” he said louder this time.

Nate leaned forward and ran a finger along MacCready’s jawline. “Patience.” He sat down and rubbed his legs, up to his groin and back, careful not to touch the younger man’s cock. He could see a pained look cross MacCready’s face as he struggled against the binding at his wrist and ankles.

“Since you’ve been a good little sniper boy, I’ll help you come.” 

Nate sat down again, grabbed his cock even tighter this time, and pumped MacCready’s shaft faster. It took barely more than a few minutes to get him worked up enough and for the merc to buck under his hand. He emitted a cry as he came, his semen almost hitting himself in the chin. Nate could see tears starting to form in MacCready’s eyes as he rode the wave of his orgasm to the finish. He continued to pump him until he felt him soften in his hand. He stood and picked up a small towel wiping his hands and then MacCready’s stomach as he knelt down in front of him again. He kissed his shoulders, his eyes dotted with tears and the nape of his neck as his breathing returned to normal.

He undid the bindings on his ankles and his wrists kissing each part of him as the ties were undone. 

MacCready rubbed his wrists and let out several shuddering breaths.

Nate stood and went over to the corner and returned with a blanket. He helped MacCready to standing and Nate guided him to the bed in the corner. He laid him down and patted him as he sat next to him.

“Boss,” he said quietly.

“Yes, Mac?”

“Thank you, Thank you for everything you’ve done for me. For Winlock and Barnes for Duncan’s cure, for-- for making me think I might trust someone again.”

Nate laid a hand on his cheek, his thumb brushed lightly at the remnant tears. He smiled and leaned down for a soft kiss on MacCready’s lips. “Get some sleep, soldier, we have a lot to do tomorrow.”

MacCready nodded and he cocooned himself in the blanket before closing his eyes.

Nate stood and went outside. He sat down on the cement of what used to be his driveway and stared up into the sky. Maybe it was his turn to do the giving, and just hope that someone would in return, love him for it.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was supposed to be a one-shot smut fic.
> 
> Oops, my hand slipped. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

There are safe words that are irrelevant and meaningless, and then there are safe-- safe words. MacCready laughed at his choice. Mungo was the most dangerous thing when he was a kid, and an insult hurled at any adult passer-by. His choice had substance and history, it _could_ be harmless, a word, that’s all it was, made up by a bunch of kids two hundred years ago; however, the suggestion of danger behind it always lurked. He knew the fear of it, and so in this instance, for him anyway, it was fitting.

He gave a quiet chuckle to himself at the memory of his time in Little Lamplight then followed it with a low moan as he watched Nate suck him. This was damn nice and he’d not wanted to spoil it, he wanted to make it last like before, because fuck that was good. However, he couldn’t do a damn thing to stop himself falling into his own orgasm. He sensed the familiar tingle in his groin, the wave of pleasure running through his core. He wiggled in the chair, trying to recall things that might stop him coming, nothing too unpleasant, just enough to extend the pleasure. He remembered the taste of that fucking fungus, the derision of that asshole sergeant who recruited him into The Gunners and the big fucking ugly mole on his face, of his fear when he first stepped out of Little Lamplight on his first scav team mission and his fear when he left his home for good. Hell, this might be a fraction easier if he’d asked Nate to tie the bindings tighter.

He’s was sure Nate’s noticed all of this, he was an observant man. How could you miss the tell-tale signs of his looming orgasm, his fidget against the rope at his wrists and ankles, his twitch and laboured breathing, the sweat from his brow dribbling down the profile of his nose and on to the top of Nate’s head and glistening against his dark mop of hair. Nate stopped his ministrations, and MacCready felt the cool of the room, at the end of his nose, on his forehead and in Nate’s breath on his slick cock. MacCready sucked in a breath at the sudden chill. 

Nate gazed up at him with heavily lidded eyes and spoke with that slight southern drawl MacCready had learned was as sweet as sugar bombs. “That good, eh, sniper boy?”

Fuck, the man has a big mouth, and a big cock too. Nate’s large hands were like an iron grip on his thighs. He had to admit, if only to himself, that he was somewhat intimidated by the guy. However, then he remembered he was RJ MacCready, he could bluff his way through anything, and for a while Nate bought it. That all changed when he told him about Lucy and Duncan.

He grunted, pitched his head back and laughed. “Fu– yes, yes it’s good. Don’t stop.”

Nate kissed MacCready’s stomach and he flinched as Nate tongued his belly button. He brought his head up and looked down at the man – the vault dweller – now his lover and intimate. This wasn’t just fucking, they both knew it, hand jobs and blowjobs are one thing. A quick fuck for MacCready was always something he was up for, not that there’d been many after Lucy, but here, with Nate it was if they were dancing around the casual sex. They’d held back just enough it was almost polite, like some sort of ball he read about in a book. Like they were—what was it—courting one another? He chortled this time and Nate looked up at him.

“Watcha laughing at, soldier boy? Your little mercenary is still hard as a wooden soldier. Want me to keep sucking?” Nate brought his face up to MacCready’s, barely an inch away.

“You know I fu–, you know I do. But–” he hesitated. He didn’t want to rush it. It’s been a while since they started this, but they’d never taken it further. Nate always wavered at the last moment, backed off, or the worst possible outcome happened-- he went limp and MacCready knew he wasn’t ready.

Nate tilted his head and a curl of a smile formed at one corner of his lips. “I know you don’t want to swear, Mac, being a good example for your son, maybe let me say it for you then?”

MacCready laughed again and nodded. “Coming from you, Boss, will make it sound ten times better.”

“Okay, let’s pretend you’re a shy soldier boy then. That you know what you want, you just can’t say it out loud. Cos you’re a good boy, a good lad. What you wanna say is ‘fuck me, Boss. Fuck me hard.’ That’s what you want to say.” He said it as a statement not a question.

MacCready’s pulse quickened and a heat came to his cheeks. His cock, if it could get any stiffer, hardened again, no thoughts of cave fungus this time could dull this erection. He nodded.

Nate’s hands ran up and down MacCready’s legs. “Do you think you could take it? A good dicking from the Boss?”

The ropes and ties at his wrists made a squeaking sound as he pulled against them, as did the wood of the chair. His eyes partially closed as his lips came close to Nate’s. “This little sniper boy would love a good dicking from his Boss. The harder the better.”

Nate kissed him then, with no gentleness to it, instead it’s feverish and full of want, full of need and MacCready responded in kind, despite the pain it caused his mouth.

Nate backed away and for a moment MacCready glimpsed a hint of doubt in his eyes, like he wanted to but something is holding him back, like so many times before. He’s not sure if Nate is ruminating on thoughts about his dead wife, or his missing son, or whether he thinks that him having Lucy in his past and Duncan still in the Capital Wasteland makes him hesitant. But to MacCready, these things, yes they are important, but damn if it would stop him having feelings for others now. Lucy would understand.

“Only if you want to of course, Boss.” He hoped that’s was enough to qualify it for him. Fuck he wanted it bad, but if Nate’s not ready, then he’d make an effort to be patient. “All good things come to good little sniper boys who wait.”

Nate blurted out a laugh. “Indeed.” He bit his lip and looked up before turning his attention to the straps at MacCready’s wrists.

MacCready’s brow furrowed in confusion. He realised he may have just killed it. “I’m sorry, Boss,” he muttered.

Nate looked towards him. “For what?”

He rubbed his newly freed wrists. “Ruining the moment.”

Nate laughed loudly. “I’m, not done yet. If that’s what you think.”

“Huh?” MacCready said.

Nate pulled his t-shirt off over his head and pointed to the bed. “I’m not going to fuck you whilst you’re tied to a chair, I’m going to give you a good hard dicking on that bed.”

MacCready’s mouth split into a grin so wide it hurt his face but then he felt it falter and a hint of nervousness set in. “I--” 

“Speechless? You?” he said and chuckled.

MacCready felt his face redden; he wasn’t often lost for words. Nate bought him in for a kiss, softer this time and ran a thumb across his beard then led him to the bed where he pulled back the covers. 

He ran a hand down Nate’s chest to the waistband of his jeans. “A first for everything, hey Boss?”

“And there it is. The mouth is back. You gonna be good for me, Mac? Or am I gonna have to lay down some rules and put that mouth to some good use?”

“I’m gonna be not only good, but the fu-- the best, Boss.” He lay back with his hands behind his head. He watched as Nate removed his jeans, letting his eyes wander approvingly over his form. It was crisscrossed with scars but for the most part the skin was smooth and bronzed. MacCready liked the intensity of being fucked by a guy. It had given him more often than not, a pleasurable, relaxed feeling. At times he found it completely overwhelming. But the intensity of it disappeared the moment he realised he never cared for them.

Nate removed his underwear and picked up the jar of Hub flower extract that they’d been using as lube. First times could be either good, or completely disastrous. For MacCready at least, it had been either one or the other.

The bed creaked and groaned with Nate’s weight as he lay down next to MacCready. One hand supported his head the other snaked down MacCready’s torso then back up again. He shivered under Nate’s touch and when he wrapped calloused fingers around his length, he moaned. MacCready turned to face him and they kissed. He managed to get his hand around Nate’s cock at the same time and they hummed into each other’s mouths before breaking. Nate reached for the lube and took a generous amount from the open jar before nudging MacCready’s thighs apart.

MacCready closed his eyes and continued to pump Nate’s growing length. As soon as he felt Nate’s fingers delve inside him, the motion alone was enough to set him off and he thought he might explode, before Nate withdrew them just as fast. He opened his eyes and Nate pushed him on to his back and crawled between his legs, lifting and spreading his legs high. He felt the nudge of Nate’s hard cock against his asshole, slippery amongst the lube.

“Are you sure about this, sniper boy?” he asked.

MacCready licked his lips. “Oh yeah, Boss. Real sure. Question is, are you?” He could see a momentary hesitation cross Nate’s feature before he reached down and kissed him gently.

Nate was slow and deliberate. Each inch nudged slowly inside him. MacCready felt the heat rise to his face, he was sure he was crimson. Nate kissed him with each slow thrust and MacCready moaned into his shoulder, he could smell a mixture of sweat and the fragrance from the hub flower. He felt his cock rub on Nate’s belly and his hands crept up Nate’s back to his shoulder blades. 

When Nate’s pace quickened he stared directly into his eyes, and the pressure on his prostate felt heightened with the intimate stare. No one had looked at him quite like that before. A connection formed between MacCready’s deep blue eyes and the dark brown cavernous ones of Nate, as deep and dark as any of the scariest caves.

MacCready’s orgasm was about to peak. The slow movements of Nate’s cock rubbing inside him against them most delicate of parts made him come within minutes, the climax amplified by the feeling Nate’s now hurried thrusts. He moaned and panted loudly into Nate’s shoulder. He felt his legs spasm and tremble with each surge of pleasure that hit him. 

“Not so mouthy now are we, sniper boy?”

MacCready gasped and clutched at the now even sweatier Nate. His legs waved in the air. “Boss, fu-- damn.” 

Nate continued to thrust harder and faster and MacCready felt the dizziness that comes from fucking this way, like he was spinning on one of those old rides he found at a playground years ago. Nate buried his head in the nape of MacCready’s neck and made several loud grunting noises before collapsing as a dead weight against his younger wiry frame. 

They remained this way for a while, MacCready’s legs neatly folded around his torso. After a while Nate’s heavy breath hadn’t subsided and MacCready realised he was sobbing into his neck. He ran his hands up Nate’s arms and turned his head to kiss his neck. He knew what Nate was going through. He knew the pain of loss. He knew that it happened upon you at the most vulnerable of moments. And this was one of those. “I know,” he said, hoping that was enough, hoping that it wouldn’t be taken for some hollow platitude to his grief.

Nate turned his face to him. “Tell me it gets easier, Mac.”

“It gets easier, Boss.”

Nate sniffed and sat up wiping his eyes with the lower part of his palms. 

MacCready sat up to and leaned against him and kissed his shoulder.

“I knew that would happen,” Nate said. “It’s probably why I’ve been avoiding it. Why the intimacy made me nervous.”

MacCready ran his arm around Nate’s torso. “You uncapped the bottle, Boss. Certainly popped mine.”

“I guess that’s one way of looking at it.”

“Fu—heck yes, I mean, you got the contents right. Hopefully a nice brew, or if not one of those quantum colas. It all bubbled out, you drank from it and then at the end of the day—you got an extra cap in your pocket.”

Nate sniffed again and wiped all the remnant tears from his face. “That’s positively upbeat sounding.”

Maccready leaned back and reached for a cigarette, lit it and sat with his back against the bed head. “Part of my charm. Mercenary, body guard, best damn shot in the Commonwealth and motivational speaker. On call, seven days a week, twenty four hours a day. You’re welcome.”

Nate laughed and leaned back next to him, MacCready offered him his cigarette. Nate placed it in his mouth and took a long drag before handing it back. “So Mac. Yay or nay.”

“Yay or nay on what, Boss?”

“A good dicking? Yay or nay.”

MacCready gave a smirk, but didn’t look at him. “It was okay. I guess. Half way between yay and nay.”

Nate turned to him. “You little shit.”

He finished the cigarette and then held his wrists up. “I’m under no obligation to be a ‘good little sniper boy’ at the moment. Maybe--” 

“Maybe what?”

“Maybe I need some harsh words spoken to me.” He knew he was teasing Nate, but continued to play along.

Nate sat up, straddled him and tilted MacCready’s chin upwards. He pressed his forehead to his. “You know what I said earlier.”

MacCready ran his hands up and down Nate’s thighs and twisted his forehead back and forth. “You said a lot of things earlier, lots of grunting and moaning too. I can’t be expected to remember everything you said.”

Nate couldn’t contain his own smirk. “I said I might have to put that mouth of yours to good use.”

“Ah that’s right.” He scratched his chin. 

“And I’ll say this too, some little shit I met when I came out of the vault made a motto, and sounded too good for me not to adopt for myself. Just in case anyone gets too high-handed with me.”

MacCready’s hand brushed down Nate’s cheek as their noses touched. “And that was?”

“Stay in line and everything'll be a-oh-fucking-kay.” 

MacCready’s lip quivered trying to hold back a laugh, but it burst from his lips. He leaned up and kissed him and when they broke MacCready put a hand on his chin. “It will be, Boss, it will.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> MacCready returns from the Capital and to Sanctuary to face Nate for the first time since they parted ways, Nate has changed and he wants MacCready to know it.

_Five months post Railroad and Brotherhood Destruction_

It didn’t get easier.

Not for Nate, not for MacCready.

They parted ways with a punch to the gut. Yeah Nate deserved it, he knew it and MacCready disappeared to the Capital to be with his son, and Nate thought he’d never see him again.

But here he was, standing before him. Same dirty rat face, same half snarl across his features. His mouth a streak across his face, mean, but Nate’s heart still skipped a beat as he recalled his mouth skirting Mac’s throat, sinking into him like a comforting cushion, crying into his shoulder. This time though, Duncan, his son, stood next to him. Small and wiry like his father. He had big brown eyes under a mop of dark unruly hair and lower on the boy’s grubby face he wore a crooked turtle mouth grin.

“I wouldn’t have come here. But I think you owe me,” MacCready said matter of fact.

“Yeah I guess I do,” Nate replied. He’d breached the man’s trust; Nate was good at that, good at setting people aside for his own selfish needs. He’d angered lovers in the past, but this was something else, a betrayal of trust, the one thing he’d fought to give Mac.

“I hear you’re in with the Brotherhood now.”

“Does it look like it?” Nate pointed to the white underneath his coat. “You heard wrong.” Mac meant his dalliance with a Brotherhood soldier, one he too had betrayed, different though – Vince had moved on after the fall of the Prydwen, he had nothing to say, nothing to do – and on the proviso, Nate would take his sister to the Institute and give her a synth body, a chance at a new life. But he couldn’t do that, he provided her with comforts of life in the Institute, but he wouldn’t make her a synth. Another broken promise, like the wings he once wore.

“You wear the Institute get up. What does that mean?”

“It means I can give you a life beyond this Wasteland, beyond starvation and harm. I can give this world something more than fighting and rebellion and I can give hope a voice. Not that of my son, whom I think was misguided. This is my voice and I am going to set things right.”

MacCready gave him a sceptical look and ran a hand of his son’s head. “I want to believe you,” he replied, shook his head and took a breath. “You broke my trust now you expect me to give it again?”

“No. But then why are you here? Caps? It’s not just that is it?”

MacCready looked down and away. “No.” He looked back up into Nate’s eyes.

Nate stared into the pools of Mac’s blue eyes. His pupils were dilated, his neck exposed but his mouth still held tight. Nate had missed him more than he realised.

“I don’t want Duncan to ever get sick again. And you’re part of the reason he’s still here. You made this happen, you helped me.” He closed his eyes. “You don’t owe me,” he conceded. “I came here for money, but– da– darn it. Why are you so– reasonable, so fu– calm?”

Nate shrugged and knelt. He came face to face with Duncan. “Hiya. I’m Nate. I have something for you.” He pulled out the wooden soldier that Mac had given him and held it out to him. “You know your Mom made this?”

Duncan looked up to his father then reluctantly back at Nate.

Nate wanted to see Mac’s reaction but he held off, keeping his gaze focussed on the boy.

“Go on, take it, I know she would have wanted you to have it. And your Pa too.” When Nate finally glanced up at MacCready, he could see his eyes glistening

A large smile broke across Duncan’s face.

MacCready clicked his tongue over his teeth. “You son of a bi–” he said and snorted back an incredulous laugh.

Nate stood and gave Mac a sorrowful look. “Let me show you. Let me earn your trust. And I promise I won’t break it again. I give you my word.”

It felt like an age before he replied, and when he did, he folded his arms across his chest. “We can stay here? In Sanctuary? Or–”

He gave MacCready and Duncan a weak smile and nodded. “It’s ‘bring a merc and son to work’ day tomorrow. Come and I’ll show you what I have planned.”

MacCready put his hand on Duncan’s shoulder and squeezed. “What do you say, buddy? Do we go with this guy?”

Duncan sniffed and gave a slow definite nod. “I think we do, and if he doesn’t keep his word, we take him for caps and blow this joint.” HIs voice was high-pitched and mischievous.

Nate gave an unwitting laugh at how much he sounded like MacCready and how comforting he found the sound.

The three walked side by side up the road and into Sanctuary’s heart.


End file.
